What does the Abya Yala Pluriversity do?

We facilitate the exchange of pluriversal knowledges in universities in Abya Yala (the Americas), to counterpoint epistemic erasures in academia, with a focus on Indigenous, Black and Maroon peoples and knowledges, currently vivid in villages ---aldeias, aldeas -- maroons -- quilombos, palenques, cumbes -- and urban territories.

Network

We have a faculty network committed to give support to academic exchanges and local experiences in Abya Yala to counter the erasure of Indigenous and Black knowledges in the academe.

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Science and Technology

We support the formation of Countercolonial Cuias (Gourd Bowls) and their Confluence in Abya Yala to reframe science and technology beyond western thinking.

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Knowledge Infrastructure

We are structuring a library centered on the knowledges of Indigenous and Quilombola peoples curated by the communities to increase the representation of other knowledges in academia.

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This initiative has been inspired by the emergence of Indigenous universities, in specific the Centro Universitario del Pueblo Xhidza, a Zapoteco university which first steps started in 2012 where we now call Santa Maria Yaviche, in Oaxaca, México, and whose call for the first cohort in communal engineering (enginería comunal) started in 2017. While the inclusion of Black and Indigenous people in western universities is an urgent step in decolonizing academia, there is the crucial need of reverting epistemic hierarchies to learn with Black and Indigenous science and technology, oral traditions, arts, literature and other forms of knowledges.
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About

The Abya Yala Pluriversity (Pluriversidad•e Abya Yala) is a network of Indigenous universities and traditional universities in Abya Yala (the Americas) that aim to counterpoint epistemic erasures in academia by supporting the circulation of Indigenous people and knowledges in the affiliated institutions, as well as Black people and knowledges that honor the alliances between Indigenous and Black people against settler colonialism and the history of bodies and territories of resistance in villages (aldeias, aldeas), cumbes, palenques, quilombos, etc., and urban territories.

Values

The Abya Yala Pluriversity is founded on the principle of a pluriversal world, where the respect and recognition of plural ways of knowing and being guide our activities.

For that, it is also based on the principles of interconnectedness and autonomy.

Who is part

Foto Paola Ricaurte Quijano

Ricaurte, Paola

(she/her)...
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Foto Malely Linares Sanchez

Sánchez, Malely Linares

(she/her)...
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Salviano, Maria Cortez

Maria Cortez Salviano is a PhD Candidate in Social Sciences at University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, with a 6-month research...

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Foto Aline Kayapó

Kayapó, Aline

(she/her)...
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Souza, Aline de

Aline de Souza is an artist-scholar whose work brings together the arts, creative technologies, and social sciences. She holds an...

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Cruz, Kiado

Kiado Cruz is a specialist at the critical intersection of internet governance, the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples and communities,...

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Foto Ray Baniwa

Baniwa, Ray

(he/him)...
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Santos, Marilia dos

Marilia is an artist-researcher rooted in the urban quilombo Casa Tainã, in Campinas, and connected to the free communication and...

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Coelho, Camila Barros

Camila Barros Coelho is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at Purdue University, originally from the Brazilian Amazon. Her research...

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Ytxaha

Ytxaha belongs to the Pankararu and Pataxó peoples and is a member of the Cinta Vermelha Jundiba village, located in...

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Foto Jess Reia

Reia, Jess

(they/them)...
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Foto Maria Vitória Pereira de Jesus

Jesus, Maria Vitoria Pereira de

Maria Vitoria Pereira de Jesus, master’s student in Scientific and Cultural Dissemination at the State University of Campinas – Unicamp,...

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Universities and Organizations

Universities and organizations whose faculty is part of this network!
Virginia Tech
Foto Uva
UVA
UACO
UniXhidza
Foto Uaz
UAZ
Foto ITESM
ITESM
UFAM
UFPA
UnB
UNICAMP
Foto Insper
Insper
UAR
UFPR
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

Scope

Our faculty network is based in universities distributed in different territories throughout Abya Yala (Americas).

In preparation to the Anticolonial Confluence of Science and Technology, we have also organized and sponsored Anticolonial Cuias (Gourd Bowls) aiming at fostering bridges between local communities and academia.

Disclaimer: This map is based on the long-term work of native-land.ca. As they explain: “[t]he map is a living document, informed by the contributions of Indigenous communities, Indigenous knowledge holders and their stories. It does not claim to represent official or legal boundaries. We encourage you to connect directly with the Indigenous nations to learn more about their territories and histories.”

Events

  • 18/07/2026
  • 8:00 am

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Second Anticolonial Cuia in Manaus

The Second Gathering of Amazonian Bowls – Afro-Indigenous Women and Countercolonial Experimentations, under the theme "Crossings, Weavings, Communication Challenges for Life," is committed to bringing women together to reflect on violent and nonviolent communication, engage in dialogue about the importance of knowledge exchange, and practice spirituality from feminine, feminist, and Amazonian perspectives.
Details
  • 29/06/2026
  • 7:00 am

Writing Ground

The Writing Ground is a weekly space at the Abya Yala Pluriversity dedicated to nurturing projects that take shape through writing. The initiative sets aside a time in our schedules when we can be fully engaged with our writing needs. We meet every Monday morning. People from different places and territories in Abya Yala (the Americas) gather online and write.
Details
  • 29/05/2026
  • 3:30 pm

Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

The Pluriversity will participate in the Latin American Studies Association conference in Paris (May 26–30), presenting the panel “Pluriversities and Knowledge Production in Abya Yala” on May 29. The panel brings together scholars and Indigenous perspectives to explore alternative forms of knowledge production, self-determination, and the role of pluriversities in challenging dominant Western academic frameworks.
Details
  • 27/03/2026
  • 10:00 am

Code Ethnography Workshop

The STS Critical Pedagogy Graduate Seminar, led by Drs. Cora Olson and Monamie Haines, and the Abya Yala Pluriversity, invite students and faculty for a making and doing workshop on the praxis and teaching of code ethnography.
Details
  • 15/10/2025
  • 9:30 am

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Anticolonial Cuia in Maré

On October 15, the Abya Yala Pluriversity held the Cuia Anticolonial Maré: Understanding and Being Afro-Indigenous. In a neighborhood made up of 15 favelas and home to approximately 140,000 residents, where 62.1% of the population self-identifies as Black and 0.6% as Indigenous, we spent the day engaged in an intense exchange of knowledge and struggles.
Details
  • 14/10/2025
  • 10:00 am

Critical Internet Governance Symposium

The goal of this symposium is to radically reimagine the future of Internet governance (IG) as a field of study through an anti-colonial lens. This proposal arises from the urgent recognition that IG, both as a practice and as a discipline, has historically been shaped by Western frameworks that marginalize other forms of knowledge and existence, weakening the agency of historically silenced communities and their epistemologies.
Details

coming soon

The Anticolonial Confluence on Science and Technology

Is an event that is being planned to happen in the Amazon region that aims to be an infrastructure of knowledge to explore the notion of pluriversality, counter-, de- and anticoloniality as foundations for a science and technology project in Abya Yala. 

About
  • 14/10/2026

Association of Internet Researchers

Code Ethnography: A Practical Workshop for Internet Researchers. Code ethnography is a method for examining code as a socio-technical actor, considering its social, political, and economic implications within the context of digital infrastructures (Rosa, 2022). The method aims to take the role of code seriously, allowing us to enroll code ethnographically in our research by examining it as language and identifying its grammar.
Details
  • 14/10/2026

Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)

Panel: Regenerative Infrastructures: Indigenous technological autonomy and community networks in Mexico. In a global digital ecosystem dominated by data extraction, Indigenous communities in Mexico demonstrate that technological infrastructures are constantly disputed based on community and “communal” values, where communal reflects “the way of living and thinking” of the Indigenous peoples, or the comunalidad (Martínez Luna, 2015, p. 44).
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Do you want to know more and be part of it? These are the people who are already part of Pluriversity and can be contacted, then, you can find out more about the Initiative, talk about ideas and projects.

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Blog

Here you get to know some of the Fellow’s experiences
News
Fabi Favarin

Intercâmbio de conhecimento indígena entre Brasil e EUA valoriza economias regenerativas e novas capacidades para bem‑viver

Em artigo publicado no The Conversation, Barbara Borum Kren, professora da Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia (UFSB), aborda o intercâmbio de conhecimentos indígenas entre Brasil e Estados Unidos e destaca a importância dessas trocas para fortalecer saberes ancestrais, redes de colaboração e novas capacidades para o Bem Viver.

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August 20, 2026 No Comments
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Join us

Do you want to know more and be part of it? These are the people who are already part of Pluriversity and can be contacted, then, you can find out more about the Initiative, talk about ideas and projects.